Trump Surpasses Pope as Most-Followed Leader on Twitter

GENEVA (AP) — President Donald Trump has passed Pope Francis to become the most-followed world leader on Twitter, a social media tracker says.

Twitplomacy says Trump, with about 40 million followers, over the weekend took the top spot on its tracked list of about 890 accounts of leaders like heads of state and government. The pope’s followers in all languages are slightly fewer.

Twitplomacy founder Matthias Luefkens, head of digital with Burson Marsteller EMEA, acknowledged that many followers could be dormant accounts or “bots.” The list also doesn’t count ex-leaders like Barack Obama, who has 95 million-plus followers.

Trump has frequently announced government policy or made controversial statements on Twitter.

Luefkens said Wednesday that Trump’s tweets get many “interactions” and he expects the U.S. leader might trumpet the achievement: “He does like his crowd size.”